On a spur-of-the-moment visit several years ago to Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose in Long Beach, the Rev. Frederick K. C. Price had a vision.

"When we walked in that building to see the airplane, I said, 'This is what we need,' " Price recalled in a recent interview.

Price immediately scrapped earlier construction plans and decided instead to build a domed church modeled after the building that houses the enormous wooden seaplane.

On Sunday, the nation's largest house of worship--a "FaithDome" with seating for 10,145 worshipers--will open for regular services in South-Central Los Angeles.

"They always say we can't do it, and we can--right in the ghetto," said church member Jannette Fant, referring to skepticism about the grandiose project she said she encountered from her white co-workers at a local aerospace company.

The $9-million geodesic structure at the old Pepperdine University campus on Vermont Avenue was built for what may be the largest predominantly black church in the country, Crenshaw Christian Center. The still-growing congregation of more than 16,000 people already is the largest Protestant church in Southern California.

The gleaming church-in-the-round throws an unaccustomed spotlight on Pastor Fred Price and his high-energy, tightly run minis try--despite his shunning of publicity and his policy of keeping out of community issues.

Price has quietly carved out both a successful nationwide television ministry, and has built a well-to-do church--with an annual budget between $16 million and $20 million--that sets him apart from nearly all other inner-city congregations.

The generosity of Price's flock amazes church leaders. Crenshaw Christian Center paid the balance owed on the $14-million campus last May, years ahead of schedule.

When Price leads churchgoers into the FaithDome at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, there will be only $2 million left to pay on the $9-million building.

Price's low profile apparently has spared him criticism over that much money going into property and buildings rather than social programs, which are limited at the church to a day-care facility and a weekly drug and alcohol recovery program.

The Rev. William R. Johnson, a Compton pastor who co-chairs the South Central Organizing Committee, said: "I have not heard one fellow pastor speak critically or positively of Fred Price."

Ills of Society Stressed